Interview With Iowa Gymnast Stella

How old were you when you started gymnastics, and what originally drew you to the sport?

I was 8 when I took my first rec gymnastics class. I was 9 when I joined team and got serious with it. Originally, I was in dance. I started dance when I was 2 years old. As I got older I started teaching myself how to tumble in the grass of my front lawn. I taught myself how to do back handsprings, back tucks, round off tumbling, etc. My parents then put me into acro class at my dance studio but that wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to do the bars, beam, and vault. So when I was 8 years old they put me in a recreational class a club gym near me. That’s when the head coach of the team program went up to my mom and told her he wanted me on his team. My parents and I had no clue what that meant and I was still in the middle of my dance season. We decided to finish out the season for dance and that summer after my 9th birthday I joined team and went straight to competing level 4.

What is your favorite meet, your favorite and least favorite events, and the hardest/easiest skill you ever trained?

My favorite meet in club was always State Championships. My favorite meet in college so far has really been all of my home meets in Iowa, or BIG10s where I scored a 9.9 on floor my freshman year. When it comes to picking a favorite event, that is really hard for me. I like to say my favorite event to compete is either floor or beam but my favorite event to train is bars. My least favorite event is vault. The easiest skill I’ve ever trained is either my Pac Salto on bars or my series on beam which is a side aerial to back handspring step out. The hardest skill I’ve ever trained is a yurchenko 1 1/2 on vault.

Gymnastics is incredibly mental. What was your hardest struggle during your time as a gymnast? How did you deal with nerves, pressure, and getting in your head or temporarily "losing" a skill?

Gymnastics is definitely more mental than it is physical. The hardest struggle I endured in my career was when I tore my ACL in my knee and had surgery. Even tho the injury was physical I don’t think people talk about the mental aspect of it enough. I took a full year to recovery and be back 100%. I always had the thought of re-injuring myself in the back of my head which I think is why it was so hard mentally for me to come back, especially on floor. I injured my knee doing a back 2 1/2 on floor so that skill unfortunately never fully came back to me. When I was re learning the skill I just had to constantly remind myself to trust myself, my training, and my coaches. I knew if I wasn’t ready my coaches wouldn’t let me do it again, and I knew how good I was at it before injury so I just had to trust myself body knew what it was doing. Ultimately, I ended up switching my all back tumbling routine to front tumbling and I NEVER front tumbled in my life before that. I learned all front tumbling passes during the summer going into my senior year of high school, now that’s all I compete.

What was your biggest accomplishment in the sport, and did you ever want to do college gymnastics?

My biggest accomplishment in gymnastics is definitely having the privilege to compete at the collegiate level. I am on a full ride athletic scholarship to the University of Iowa for gymnastics. I have always wanted to do college gymnastics. Even from when I started the sport at just 9 years old NCAA gymnastics has been my goal. It was never Olympics.

How did you cope when your time as a gymnast ended, and did you transition into coaching or are you currently still competing?

I currently am still competing for Iowa. I am going into my sophomore year. Leaving club gymnastics though was very hard. I was so excited to go to college, compete at the collegiate level, and start a life on my own of course but I was terrified at the same time and so scared of growing up. To cope with that I reminded myself that this has been my dream and to just enjoy it and make the most out of it.

Who was your gymnastics role model, and what advice would you give to someone starting the sport for the first time?

My gymnastics role model growing up was Jade Carey. I had the privilege to be able to train with her for a while at Arizona Sunrays. Being able to train with her really showed me what it was like to put your all into the sport. Even though we didn’t have the same goals being Olympics and college, that drive and passion is still the same and she was such a big influence in my career. A piece of advice I would give someone just starting the sport would be to just believe. You can do absolutely anything you put your mind to. So if you have those goals, chase them. The second you start doubting or believing you are not cut out for something is the second those goals go out the window. So keep your head up, stay confident, and fake it until you make it if you have to. Mind over matter always, your mindset is so much stronger than you think it is.

What two goals you want to achieve in the sport of gymnastics?

Some goals I want to achieve in gymnastics is to be an All American, get a perfect 10 on floor, and for my team to make it to the Elite 8 in the NCAA tournament.